active 4th century B.C. Liao Wei

The name Liao Wei is attached to the Wei Liaozi, an ancient Chinese text on military strategy that later became one of the Seven Military Classics. The work is generally associated with the late Warring States period, and the text in roughly its current form is thought to date to around the end of the 4th century BC.

Almost nothing certain is known about the historical person. Traditional accounts connect Wei Liao with high politics and military advising, but surviving evidence is thin, and even the question of authorship is debated. Scholars have noted that the book reads more like the work of a political and military theorist than a battlefield tactician.

What survives most clearly is the influence of the text itself. The Wei Liaozi blends military planning with ideas about statecraft, agriculture, discipline, and moral authority, giving it a broader political vision than a simple manual of war. For many readers, that mix of practicality and philosophy is what makes the work endure.